Shredders are well-known for use in shredding documents and other papers. Often, shredders are used for destroying outdated or extraneous documents, particularly those with confidential information. Typically, shredder designs have been directed specifically towards meeting the need for efficient, quiet, and effective shredding of paper, as that has been the traditional medium for storing information for many years.
With advances in information storage technology, many companies are storing information on computer mediums, and in particular recordable compact discs (CDs) and digital video discs (DVDs). CDs and DVDs allow a great deal of information to be stored in an extremely compact manner. Because CDs and DVDs are often used to store the same type of information as paper, it logically follows that businesses would still want to destroy CDs and DVDs containing confidential information. CDs and DVDs, however, are generally disc-shaped structures that are rigid, or at least semi-rigid, and the cutting elements typically used in shredders for cutting paper are not well-suited for effectively destroying such objects. Specifically, most shredders employ cutting elements having negative profiles because they have found to be the best for cutting paper. These negative profiles, however, tend to function poorly for cutting rigid/semi-rigid objects, such as CDs.